What Do You Do?

The Sunday School class I attend just started a study on VOCATION. The first session had some references to the oft-asked question, "What Do You Do?" and how that sometimes defines who we are. If anyone has seen the musical version of EVERYTHING I NEEDED TO KNOW I LEARNED IN KINDERGARTEN there's a funny song included in that production.
The study reminded me of a song I wrote in 1994 for a retreat of volunteer missionaries in Japan, of which I was one. We were all ESL teachers and the lyrics depicted a classroom where students are learning the question WHAT DO YOU DO? The line about a student stating that he is "a waste management guy" is based on reality. One of my students was a garbage man, so that eventually led to him being a waste management guy. The rest of the story, a few years after I left Japan that WASTE MANAGEMENT GUY was baptized.

Here's the lyrics:

WHAT DO YOU DO?

I asked a student, "What do you do?"
He told me, "I am a farmer," it's true.
And to the next I said, "Where do you work?"
She told me, "I am a bank teller clerk."

(Chorus)
Then they said, "Teacher, what do you do?"
I told them, "I am a teacher," it's true.
Buth there is one more thing that I am,
By Jesus' call I'm a fisher of men.
Yes, by Jesus' call, we are fishers of men.

I asked a student, "Are you employed?"
He said, "Yes, I am a maker of toys."
Then to his classmate I said, "How 'bout you?"
She said quite softly, "A teacher, grade two."
(Chorus)

I asked a pupil if he could explain the work that he did
come sun, wind, or rain.
And then to my and my students' surprise,
He told me, "I am a waste management guy."
(Chorus)

There's all sorts of students in classes of ours...
Some of them drive bicycles, some of them cars.
And while we are blessed to be teachers and friends,
We're blessed most of all that we're fishers of men.
We're blessed most of all that we're fishers of men.

I asked a student, "What do you do?"

AND